Thompson on preseason: 'If it changed, we'd change with it'

Nov. 6, 2013

As a fringe linebacker for most of his NFL career, Ted Thompson always enjoyed the preseason.
"I actually liked it because I was an undrafted free agent," the Green Bay Packers' general manager said with a hint of a smile. "I wanted every shot I could get."
In all seriousness, the first few seasons of Thompson's eventual 10-year career with the Houston Oilers began with six-game preseason schedules to kick off the new year. Not four, not two, but six prior to a 14-game regular season.
While it's been 34 years since the NFL expanded the regular season to 16 games and scaled down the exhibition season to four contests, the question continues to be asked if it's time for the league to cut the preseason down even further due to rising ticket prices combined with the continued emphasis on player safety.
Now an NFL general manager with less than two weeks until his 90-man roster needs to be sliced 53, Thompson treasures every opportunity he and his staff get to evaluate the team's roster, but understands the ever-changing climate of the game.
If the league eventually adopts a system to reduce the number of games, Thompson believes life would go on. Although player personnel decisions might be affected in the short term, everything would be OK in the long run.
"We’ve been playing under the same system for a long time and so you have the four games and so every coach, every general manager has their idea of what they need to do," Thompson said. "I think if it changed, we’d change with it. It’s the way it has been."
-whodkiew@greenbaypressgazette.com and follow him on Twitter @WesHod.